There has been no direct answer and it doesn't look like there will be. The demand for "respect" for Podemos, launched loudly by the revived former general secretary, Pablo Iglesias, as a precondition for allying with Sumar in the general elections, has not been answered since the second vice-presidency and it does not seem likely that it will. to respond. We can press because the party clock is moving towards a difficult scenario in municipal and regional governments, while the vice president works – as she emphasizes again and again – with the only horizon of the general elections.
These two calendars explain the urgency seen in the closure of the Autumn University of Podemos and the parsimony of the Sumar calendar, which today celebrates another of its listening acts in the Plaza del Baluarte de Iruña (Navarra). Díaz has already explained that until January, the 35 work teams will not present the main lines of their country project and it will be later when work begins on the possibility of an electoral candidacy. Yesterday, at the entrance to the act of homage to Almudena Grandes, he only responded to the press: "I'm leaving my skin for my country and I'm still working."
Podemos cannot wait that long, although yesterday the formation seemed frightened by the echo of the words of its former leader who warned thunderously: "Woe to him or her who dares to disrespect the militants of Podemos!" The executive's co-spokesperson, Javier Sánchez Serna, appeared yesterday at noon and despite the insistence of questions from the press, reiterated over and over again that Iglesias was not referring to Yolanda Díaz when he proclaimed that "Podemos has to bet on converging with Add in the general elections, but Podemos must be respected.” Sánchez Serna did not clarify who Iglesias demanded respect for Podemos when mentioning Sumar, but he denied on half a dozen occasions that she was the vice president.
In any case, the urgency of Podemos was also reflected in the circumvention of its affiliation with the candidacy of Yolanda Díaz. Asked if the vice president was still his only possible candidate for general, as the party had been repeating like a litany last year, the co-spokesperson avoided answering and stressed that before that, it is she who must take the initiative, deciding if she will be a candidate. “We will listen to her proposal.”
Sánchez Serna explained that “when Yolanda Díaz finishes organizing her political party, we will listen to her proposal. Our will is to reach a coalition agreement with Sumar, but it is Yolanda who must decide if she is a candidate and right now we do not have that information”. Podemos has changed its position after the reappearance of Iglesias, withdrawing the a priori confidence that until now had been expressed in his candidacy. In addition, Podemos now refers to Sumar as “a political party”, an extreme that Díaz has repeatedly denied, that he considers his platform a space for reflection that aspires to become a major electoral candidacy –something reminiscent of the first Podemos–. And he has not expressed sympathy for a coalition of two between Sumar and Podemos, but rather for an integration process that brings together all the actors in the space.
But at the moment the requirements launched by Podemos have not received a response, nor does the vice president seem willing to modify her calendar, which does not include any express link between the Sumar project and the municipal and regional elections next May.
